Brewers to resolve beer bottles dispute in three months

A plant operator at Naivasha based Keroche Breweries supervises the production of the newly launched Vienna Ice Strong Lager on April 4, 2021. [Antony Gitonga, Standard]

Keroche Breweries has welcomed the High Court's decision to have the Competition Authority of Kenya (CAK) resolve a packaging row it has with a competitor.

The company termed the directive as long overdue, noting that it was keen to have the issue resolved by the authority within 120 days as directed by Justice Alfred Mabeya.

Keroche and six beer distributors have accused East African Breweries Limited of embossing the 500ml brown Euro bottle. with its logo thus limiting their access and production.

They noted that the move was meant to lock out other breweries that use the beer bottles from the liquor business.

Keroche CEO Tabitha Karanja said they would abide by the decision. “We welcome the decision by the High Court to have our case resolved by CAK within four months.”

She insisted that the bottle was universal packaging material used by other brewers.

Karanja also noted that her company was keen to capture 10 per cent of the market share.

She said they were headed to achieving this, but Covid-19 adversely affected the sector, leading to a drop in production and sale of beer.

“For years we have worked under unfair grounds but we thank Kenyans for believing in our products and promoting local investments.”

She said the company was keen to introduce another strong beer in the market to bridge the current gap among consumers.

Last week, the company launched Vienna Ice Strong Lager which has an alcohol content of 10 per cent.

“The new product Vienna Ice Strong Lager will generate over Sh1 billion to Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) every year and this will rise with time as per our market projections,” she said.